Monday, Memorial Day, they will have stared into the middle distance — downtown Newark — and deeper still for 100 years.

Abraham Lincoln never spent much time in New Jersey, and he did not carry New Jersey, or even Newark, in either of his runs for president. Although Lincoln would often pass through the Garden State on his way to New York or Washington, D.C., there is no record of his ever spending a single night in New Jersey.

But there, on a similarly bronze-cast bench, up the granite steps leading to the Essex County Historic Court House, the nation’s 16th president has a permanent place in New Jersey.

The statue, by the man who would later carve the reliefs on Mount Rushmore, was unveiled May 30, 1911. The dedication drew tens of thousands, including former President Theodore Roosevelt, Newark Mayor Jacob Haussling and the sculptor, Idaho-born Gutzon Borglum.

Also in attendance was a contingent of Civil War veterans, most of whom would have by then been in their mid-60s. Roosevelt, as he was addressed that day, would tell them he was "half of Southern blood."

But, Roosevelt continued, the victory won under Lincoln at great cost carved not only the country’s future, but also that of civilization.

"If you had failed in the Civil War, it would have meant more than your own failure, for it would have meant that nine-tenths, perhaps all, of what was worth doing as the result of the Revolutionary War would have been undone," he said.

And Lincoln’s countenance on that bronze bench reflects those sentiments, said Holly Pyne Connor, the Newark Museum’s curator of 19th century American art.

"Lincoln is shown weary, tired and totally overwhelmed," Connor said. "He’s not removed from the suffering of the nation."

Borglum’s rendering, done at the bequest of Amos H. Van Horn, a prominent Newarker who made his fortune chiefly in the furniture business, depicts Lincoln in jacket and bow tie, his top hat on the bench beside him. The lines on his face echo the creases in his topcoat.

"You will find written on his face literally," Borglum wrote, "all the complexity of his great nature, a nature seeing at once the humor and the pathos of each situation as it presents itself to him."

Elizabeth Del Tufo, president of a city residents’ preservation and landmarks committee, said people were not unanimous in their appreciation of the pose Borglum chose.

"People were somewhat aghast," said Del Tufo, a Newark resident since 1960. "Up until then, great leaders were always on a horse or with a sword, in some sort of heroic, macho pose."

Borglum displayed sensitivity, she said, considering some research has since shown Lincoln suffered from depression.

Aside from his admiration — Borglum named his only son Lincoln — the sculptor also recognized the importance of the commission. For instance, he paid for the statue to be cast in one piece and also bore some of the costs of the landscaping, said Guy Sterling, a Newark history buff and former Star-Ledger reporter.

Four other works by Borglum are in Newark, among them the "Puritan and Indian" lamp-stand in Washington Square Park and the "Wars of America" monument in Military Park.

The statue, though, is one of the most famous pieces of public art in the country "and arguably the second-most famous of Abraham Lincoln after the Lincoln Memorial," Sterling said. "Everybody knows it, every kid who lives here has climbed on it."

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Newark’s historical society will hold a "Lincoln and Newark" program at the city’s library to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s only documented visit to Newark, just before his first inauguration in 1861. A rededication ceremony is scheduled for noon on June 8 at the statue.